Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Sean Rakos is a renaissance man. When I first met him he had just moved to Michigan from Texas, where he had been helping out original Mutiny dude Steev Inge. Sean was a big, tattooed, intimidating guy who didn't say a lot. The next time I saw him was at TRP where he asked if I had a chain tool. I had one, let him use it, and he unknowingly broke it. I was bummed but afraid to even mention it to him. From there, a friendship started gaining momentum and blossomed into something great. In the short few years that Sean lived in Ann Arbor, we covered a lot of ground. Many road trips, many Sunday morning sessions at TRP with Davey Coop, Solan Foster, Phil Rase and the late, great Chris Yankee. Always laughter and always good times. Sean was pivotal in my starting the Deliverance Clothing company, helping with designs and turning my shitty art into something feasible. He also worked at the print shop where the shirts were printed, which was really the catalyst for the whole thing happening to begin with.

Shortly before Sean moved back to Texas, he, Chris Hatfield and I took a trip to ride some parks, with the Athens, Ohio cement park being the apex. So much funny shit happened on that trip. Losing a joint in my Expedition and the panic that ensued as Chris and Sean tried to find it was hilarious. Me taking out a skater at the Athens park was a low point. Being overly defensive is one of my lesser qualities and I remember talking to the skater I ran down "dude, I'm so sorry, I was just skating right before I hit you..." So lame. That trip was one of the last times I smoked the ganja. I'm just not wired for it. A great trip regardless.

After Sean moved back to Austin, I stayed with him for a couple days during the premier for the Etnies Grounded video. We rode a bunch and hit all the Austin hot spots (except the 9th street trails, they were wet). Great memories of that trip as well. Riding the five hips ditch, the T-1 ramp and so many other spots.

These days, Sean is a tattoo artist at Atomic Tattoo. Hopefully someday I'll get some ink from him. Sean rules. Just stay on his good side. I witnessed the transformation into "Angry Sean" a couple times and it was really scary. I thought he was going to choke a dude at a gas station one time who yelled at him for grinding on some pipe by the gas pump....